Broke My Heart for the First Time
by loveadubdub
Summary: "We get paid to like play outside and swim."  He is such a twelve year old.  First of all, they get  500 for four weeks of work- not a great deal.  Second of all, play outside?  If she wasn't so happy to see him, she would punch him for being such a dork
1. Chapter 1

**BROKE MY HEART FOR THE FIRST TIME**

...

The summer after graduation is supposed to be about hanging out, going to parties, having fun by the pool and saying goodbye to all the friends you're never going to see again.

Quinn is not naïve. She doesn't believe that high school friendships last forever or that these are going to be the people she invites to be bridesmaids in her wedding. She's smarter than that- more realistic. There are a few people that she'll keep in touch with, but she saw the very, very vast majority of them for the last time at graduation. Still, it's those few that she wants to spend the summer with because once they all go off to college, everything's going to change. They might talk a few times during the school year and run into each other next summer and possibly the one after that, but this is the last time they're ever _really _going to be together. This is the last time it's ever going to be like this.

So needless to say, the _last _thing she wants to do is spend four weeks as a counselor at church camp.

She tries everything to get out of it. She tries really, _really _hard. But when three of the counselors get hit with mono five days before camp, she kind of gets guilted into it. And by kind of, she means her mother tells her that Jesus would want her to share her time helping the children get to know the Lord better. And after that, well, it's not exactly like she can say no to _Jesus._

That doesn't mean she's happy about it, though. She and her mother argue for a good three days over it, and they only _stop _arguing because Quinn gives up. The next two days are spent packing in relative silence because, really, she's pissed off, and the silent treatment is proven to be one of the most effective methods of punishment. She's eighteen, but she's acting more like fourteen. Really, though, she doesn't even care because this is all her mother's fault, and she's going to take the blame whether she wants to or not.

…

Two hours on a non-air conditioned school bus is pretty much not ideal for _any _situation. Spending that time with forty screaming kids? This is probably exactly what hell feels like, and that's nothing if not ironic.

She sits near the front with the rest of the counselors, and she can't help noticing that most of them seem way more excited for this than she is. Some of them are even engaging the kids- telling them jokes and leading stupid cheers that are miles beyond lame. It's just ridiculous. She's sitting with Jessica Hancock, though, and _she, _at least, seems to be having close to a normal reaction for this situation. She looks tired and slightly irritated, and Quinn asks if she's ever done this before.

"Hell no. My mom made me because I almost failed chemistry." She's got both of her arms crossed, and even though Quinn's probably only ever said ten words to her total, she thinks they might end up saving each other this summer.

…

She gets assigned to Cabin B- the eight year olds. Fantastic.

She finds this out after she checks in at the post-arrival orientation for the new counselors. Some of the 'veterans' take the kids out to the amphitheater while all the 'newbies' gather in the cafeteria for some kind of training session. Seriously, they're supposed to take care of these brats for four weeks, and they get a whole _two hours _of instruction on how to do it. It's ridiculous. If the parents of these kids knew the kind of 'training' that went into this, they'd probably reconsider allowing their children to come.

She sticks with Jessica just because she doesn't want to suffer through this alone, and they head to the registration table to check in and get their bunk assignments. Jessica ends up in F, which means she gets twelve year olds. Quinn can't decide if that's much better or much worse than the eights. Either way, Jessica seems just as enthused about her assignment as Quinn is her about her own.

There are three other counselors in her cabin, and she doesn't recognize any of their names. They're all from different churches, so that's not surprising, but it sucks because she hates having to meet new people. She'd rather be with someone from her own church, even someone she didn't _like, _than to be forced into cohabitation with complete strangers. Apparently two of them are vets because only one of the others is signed up for this orientation. Kirby Stanfil. What the hell kind of a name is _Kirby? _She's pretty sure that's some kind of video game character or something, and she's almost positive it's not a real name for a girl.

Turns out, though, that it apparently _is _real because Kirby Stanfil finds her before she even leaves the check-in table.

"Quinn? I'm Kirby! We're gonna be bunkmates!"

Quinn _immediately _hates her.

She's short and peppy and has her red hair pulled up into the kind of high ponytail that basically always gives Quinn Cheerios flashbacks. She's got way too much energy for anyone over the age of ten, and the smile on her face is way too happy to be sincere. She's probably a major bitch, and this cheerful facade is just a way to scope people out and draw the more gullible ones in. Quinn knows plenty of girls like this. She pretty much hates every single one of them.

After a quick two minute introduction with her new co-counselor, Quinn manages to escape because Jessica says she has to pee. It's a well-known fact that girls do not pee alone, so Quinn uses the excuse to follow her and get away from Kirby. "Good luck with that," Jessica mutters as they make their way to the bathrooms at the back of the cafeteria.

Quinn fixes her hair in the mirror while Jessica pees, and she wonders how the hell she's supposed to make it four_ weeks _in this place. She used to love this camp when she was a kid, but looking at it now, she realizes it's basically a dump, not to mention, of course, the fact that she has _no _friends here and that she'd rather be doing just about anything besides waking up at dawn and hiking through the woods to a campfire. It's going to be terrible.

They're just coming out of the bathroom and heading over to the tables that have been set up when she sees him. He's across the room, talking to some guy who looks eerily like Chace Crawford and/or Zac Efron. But even with his back half-turned, she knows it's him, and the whole day gets better. She's not crazy, so she doesn't run across the room and jump into his arms or anything. She tells Jessica she'll be right back, and she just walks over to him and calmly taps his shoulder as he's still talking to the Gossip Girl Meets High School Musical model.

He stops, though, and turns around to see who's interrupting, and he immediately smiles at her and opens his arms for a hug.

…

Sam's been gone for most of the year.

His dad got a job early in October, and by the middle of the month, the whole family was moved to Manchester. It sucked, but obviously there was no other choice. They had to go wherever the job was, and even though Sam was going to end up at three schools in three years, he made the best of it. They've seen him a couple of times since then- Regionals was in Cincinnati, and he drove up to watch, just random stuff like that. But everybody missed him, and running into him at camp is just really, really good.

They end up sitting together and whispering at one of the back tables the entire time the camp director is giving them instructions. They should probably be paying attention, but seriously, how hard can keeping up with a bunch of kids _be? _Plus, there are four counselors to a cabin, so it really shouldn't be that hard. She tells him that she didn't want to be here and that her mom volunteered her, and he laughs and tells her it's not that bad because, "At least we get paid to like play outside and swim."

He is such a twelve year old. First of all, they get paid $500 _(before _taxes) for four weeks of work. Four weeks of basically 24 hour work. That's not really a good deal. Second of all, _play outside? _If she wasn't so happy to see him, she might punch him for being such a dork.

Sam's in Cabin 1, which is even worse than Cabin B because 1 has seven year olds- the youngest at the entire camp. He doesn't seem to realize why that's so terrible, and she doesn't really have the heart to tell him because he actually looks _excited _for this train-wreck waiting to happen, and who is she to burst his bubble?

…

The kids show up approximately two minutes after Quinn unpacks the last of her clothes and finishes folding them into her cubby.

She and Kirby really haven't said too much else to each other, but they both seem to agree that being the last two to the cabin blows because they're the ones stuck on the only two upper bunks in the entire room. All of the kids beds and the other two counselor beds are just normal, but they're stuck with loft-beds that they each have to share with a _kid. _It's not fair, and Quinn's already prepared to tell _Anna _and _Emma _(their brightly-colored name sheets are hanging cheerfully- _annoyingly- _over their already-made beds) that she's not staying on the bunkbed the entire summer and that they better plan on some kind of rotation.

She hears the kids coming, and she looks out the cabin window to see approximately ten million girls running up the hill toward the cabins. This camp takes kids ages seven to fifteen, and every single one of those ages is represented in the stampeded that's currently descending on them. Kirby comes to the window with her, and it's kind of ridiculous how easy it is for her to immediately slap that huge, fake, bright smile back on her lips as she waits for their group.

They arrive in little groups of twos and threes, some of them already holding hands and acting like they're Best Friends Forever. They all have name tags with the letter B pinned to their shirts, and Quinn tries to take in some of the names. Some of them are normal (Madison, Emily, Katie), but some of them are ridiculous (Izabelah, Makeeri, _Lulu?)_. It's annoying to say the least.

But then she hears a high-pitched voice screaming, "Quinn!" and looks up just in time to see Stacy Evans practically attacking her. She literally flails her arms a little bit as she finishes running across the street, and then she _jumps _on Quinn who has no choice but to catch her.

She already knew Stacy would be one of her kids- Sam told her so the second she told him which age group she was stuck with. She didn't exactly count on being so _happy _about it, though, but she's actually really glad to have at least one kid she cares about in all of this. There are a couple of others who go to her church, but she knows them by face only and has no sort of feelings about them one way or the other. At least she knows she loves Stacy, so even if it's lame than an eight year old is her biggest (and really _only) _ally in the entire bunk, she's still happy about.

She sets Stacy back on her own feet and then helps her dig through the pile of luggage in the middle of the cabin to find her bag. Stacy actually finds it, yanking on a green shoulder strap until she looks like she's about to fall over. Quinn helps her, tugging the bag free and then glancing around for only a second before tossing it on the bed underneath her own.

"Wanna sleep with me?"

Stacy looks possibly like Justin Bieber just proposed to her.

(There's some kind of irony to that thought, but Quinn's not going to take the time to dissect it).

…

There are two things about Stacy Evans that Quinn knows for sure: One, she likes to talk. A _lot. _Two, she's incredibly clingy and doesn't like to share.

This becomes pretty evident basically right off the bat. She attaches herself to Quinn and won't let go. Quinn might mind more than she actually does if she had any desire whatsoever to actually do this counselor thing correctly. As it is, though, she really doesn't care if Stacy basically monopolizes one-hundred percent of her attention because there are three other counselors to take care of the other fifteen girls.

She sits on Quinn's lap during the initial cabin meeting. She holds her hand as they walk on their tour of the camp. She asks for a piggy-back ride when they're on their way down to lunch. And she stays right by her side as they wait in line at the cafeteria. The only time she _detaches _is when they sit down at their table and she spots Sam coming through the backdoor with his own cabin. After that, all bets are off.

Quinn might be awesome, but big brother apparently trumps everything.

It's a little strange. Stacy likes Sam way more than Quinn ever remembers liking her own older sister. But there's a much larger age gap there, so maybe that plays into it some. Also, Sam's nice. Very nice. Frannie's only ever nice if pageant titles are involved.

So maybe that's why.

…

They make it through the first night of camp without any homesickness in their bunk.

According to the almighty Emma and Anna, this is amazing and means something really great. Quinn thinks it probably just means that the kids are still too hyped up on the slumber party aspect and that they haven't had time to get bored and start crying yet, but she's not a _veteran, _so what does she know?

The next morning, the director and his wife come around to all the counselors and hand out schedules. It's color-coded and lists where each age group with be each hour and where each counselor should be. The day before, they filled out questionnaires that were designed to help fit them to activities they'd best be suited to. Quinn put down cheerleading first and music second. She's not really good at anything else. Makeup application? Not an option.

For the most part of the day, she's just assigned to follow her bunk from activity to activity, but for three hours during the afternoon, she's supposed to be helping in arts and crafts. She doesn't know how cheering or music equals arts and crafts, but she figures it's probably not too bad because at least the craft building is air-conditioned. Before that, though, she has to make it through breakfast, archery, Bible study, lunch, and swimming. Lovely.

Sam sits down with her when she's halfway through her cereal, and he lets Stacy climb across the table and hug him. He's got four little boys in tow who make sure to put a two seat distance between themselves and the girls that are also sitting at the table. He picks up her schedule before he even says hello and reads it as he bites into a piece of bacon.

"We have... swimming together. Nice." He smirks at her, and she's not really sure why.

"What did you put down for your talents or whatever?"

He thinks for a second and then starts listing them off. "Baseball, soccer, football, basketball, art, swimming, shooting, and music."

Apparently he's much more talented than she is.

"What did you get for your block?"

"Tennis."

She snorts because at least she's not the only one stuck with something completely random and not related to her top choices.

"But mine's in the morning. This afternoon we get to visit you in art class."

She rolls her eyes and struggles to open her milk carton. She's always hated these things and how difficult they are to maneuver. "Well, bring your crayons because I hope they have coloring books. Otherwise, they're going to be sorely disappointed because I am _not _artistic."

"You probably are. You're probably just downplaying it like you do everything else."

She doesn't know what that means, but he's being serious regardless. It's easy to tell when he's teasing and when he's not. Right now, he's just making an honest statement, and she wants to ask him to explain himself, but she doesn't.

She doesn't get the chance because Lulu accidentally bumps her tray with her elbow and spills its entire contents right into her lap. She screams like someone has just attacked her or something, and basically every kid in viewing distance bursts into laughter. Quinn jumps up and hurries around the table to help her, and she doesn't even notice Sam following her until he's standing right behind her passing her napkins as she tries to get Lulu halfway cleaned and quiet because her initial scream has now turned to tears.

"Hey, stop," she says, and really, it sounds like a good enough explanation to her. Stop crying because it's not helping anything, and stop because it's only making people laugh harder. Apparently it's not that great of advice, though, because Lulu keeps crying and will barely lift her head enough for Quinn to even wipe at her shirt.

There's a huge mess. Cereal, scrambled eggs, hashbrowns, and milk are staining her clothes and the floor. There's no way she's going to get cleaned up here- she's going to have to change clothes completely.

"Come on, let's go change." Quinn doesn't know what else to say, and she also doesn't know where her three co-counselors are. Shouldn't they be helping with this?

Lulu shakes her head and then crosses her arms like she's hugging herself. She won't look up, and she's still crying. Quinn's getting pissed off, and she's just about to tell the little brat to get up and move or spend the rest of the day smelling like rotten milk and eggs, but Sam butts in before she gets the opportunity.

"Hey, come on," he says gently, and he touches her shoulder and kind of flicks at chin a little bit. "Let's hurry up and get out of here, and then they can't make us clean this mess up." He's smiling at her, the same way he smiles at pretty much _everyone. _Lulu looks up at him and blinks. "Come on, let's hurry!"

Quinn expects more tears, but she doesn't get them. Instead, Lulu seems perfectly fine when Sam has to resort to actually picking her up. Lots of kids are still staring, and several are still laughing, but Lulu doesn't seem to care. Instead, she just pushes her face into his shoulder and lets him carry her out of the dining hall. Quinn looks at the mess on the floor and wonders if she's supposed to clean it up. She decides that if she _is, _one of the other counselors can do it. She's the one having to deal with the crying kid, so it's only fair.

She hurries after Sam and catches up to him outside. Lulu's got her head raised now, and she's quietly answering his questions.

"So what's your name?"

"Lulu..."

He looks just a little bit amused, but he hides it well. "That's a different kind of name." She just shrugs, the frown on her face never faltering. "It's cool." He gives her another one of those big smiles, and she actually returns it with a tiny one herself.

He carries her all the way back to the cabin, and Quinn stays quiet and listens to them talk. She realizes that Lulu hasn't said much of anything to anyone since they got here, but she seems to open up a little with Sam. It's cute in a way- what way, she doesn't really know, but it probably means something.

"Okay, Miss Lulu." He sets her down right in front of Cabin B. "Go get changed, and then we can go get something else to eat."

"Will you wait?"

He nods, and she bites down on her lip and gives him another little smile. Quinn just looks at him and doesn't say anything before she guides Lulu inside by the shoulder. She digs through Lulu's cubby and pulls out a new t-shirt and a different pair of shorts. She sits down on the bed and waits while the little girl changes, taking the dirty clothes and setting them aside to take to the staff laundry later. Lulu doesn't say a word the entire time they're inside, but when they're finished and head back out, she walks straight up to Sam and takes his hand. She says something to him that Quinn can't hear, and it's really pathetic that he's a better leader to her girls than she is.

She's also not even remotely surprised.

…

Lights out happen camp-wide at eleven o'clock.

Each night, one counselor from each bunk has to stay up and on watch until 2 AM. The other counselors are free until that point. So basically, they can do whatever they want for those three hours as long as they're back in their cabins by the two o'clock curfew. It's pretty much _the _best part of the day, even if it does kind of making getting up at 6:30 each morning pretty difficult. Still, those three hours of freedom are beyond worth it because it's the only time they don't have to deal with whiny kids, and it's the only time they can actually act like normal teenagers.

There's probably something wrong with the fact that church camp turns out to basically be one big drunken orgy after-hours. It's certainly something Quinn was unaware of during her years here as a camper, and it's almost funny how different most of the staff acts when they're not around the kids. There are some, obviously, who take their jobs very seriously and who also take the religious aspect of this camp very seriously, but they mostly stick together in a group and silently judge the others.

And make no mistake, Quinn _loves _Jesus, but she's not above a little bit of underage alcohol consumption.

She doesn't drink _every _night, and she never actually gets drunk. But she realizes that a couple of cans of beer make most of these other people much easier to get along with. There's nearly always some kind of party, and most of the counselors meet up in the game room to drink a little bit, play a little pool, and engage in some making out on the couches. The director obviously knows what goes on, but he ignores it as long as everyone does their job and no one is stupid about it. This is apparently a long-standing tradition, and it's worked well enough so far.

Quinn gets sucked into a Spades tournament, and she forces Sam to be her partner basically because she doesn't want to be alone. It's obviously not a very successful game because everyone's drinking, and no one's really paying close enough attention to make any kind of stellar moves, but it's fun, and they're all laughing and joking around. Quinn doesn't even hate the fact that one of the other girls in the game keeps interrupting everyone else to tell some stupid story about the time she accidentally got punched in the face by a guy at her prom's after-party.

What _does _irritate her, though, is the fact that one of the lifeguards (Leslie maybe) keeps finding excuses to touch Sam.

He seems pretty oblivious, but that's not surprising because he's blind to that kind of stuff. Quinn notices, though. Leslie's on his left, and she keeps leaning over to make sure that their arms are brushing, and she keeps turning her head too sharply so that her hair swings and hits his shoulder. It's supposed to look innocent and unintentional, but it really just looks desperate and slightly skanky.

Quinn hates girls who do that sort of thing. It's so annoying and pathetic. She wants to point it out, but she doesn't because it would start a 'thing,' and she'd rather just get through this god-forsaken summer with as little drama as possible.

But please, it's disgusting.

…

If there's one thing topic of conversation that trumps all others at camp, it's boys.

Pretty much every single girl, from the little ones all the way to the oldest ones, has an opinion on the boys of camp, and every single one of them wants to express it. Quinn thinks it's ridiculous how boy crazy these little eight year olds are, but every day, all day long, all she hears about which boys are the cutest and who all is 'going out.' It's stupid because clearly none of them are _going out _anywhere, but even though Quinn finds it dumb now, she remembers all the third grade boyfriends she and her friends had. It's stupid, yes, but to the girls that age, it's very serious.

None of the boys are safe. The girls in her cabin don't stick to the boys in Cabin 2. No, they have crushes from Cabins 1 all the way up to 9. They also have crushes on several members of the staff and various counselors.

The boy at the top of many of their lists? Sam Evans.

It's cute in a way because he's nice to all of them, which automatically makes him desirable in their eyes. Obviously he's attractive, and even little girls can see that. So really, it's no wonder that he's won so many of their hearts. The older girls at camp try to catch his attention with stupid flirting techniques that all fourteen and fifteen year old girls think are cute. They laugh too loudly around him, they act dumb, and they stalk him at every single meal. The little girls, though, are less obvious and more cute. They hang all over him and try to tackle him whenever they see him. He throws them around some, and they scream with laughter. It's cute, okay?

But Stacy doesn't find it cute at all.

Quinn wasn't lying when she said Stacy doesn't like to share. She's a very sweet little girl, but she likes what's hers, and she likes it to be hers alone. She doesn't appreciate her brother sharing his attention with so many other girls, and she throws more than one tantrum about it. Sam always gets her to chill out, but Quinn can tell that it's only a matter of time before she gets fed up completely and has a meltdown.

When that happens, she's already making plans to let someone else handle it.

…

A/N

Anyway, thanks for reading, hope you enjoyed it!


	2. Chapter 2

**BROKE MY HEART FOR THE FIRST TIME**

**Chapter 2**

**...**

The first time she actually feels _jealous _is a Tuesday afternoon about a week and a half into camp.

It's pool time, and everyone's waiting around for the whistle signaling free swim. Most of the younger kids have swimming together, so Sam's there, too. And by there, she means he's standing on the other side of the pool in board shorts and nothing else but a pair of aviators. He's talking to Leslie and laughing at something that's probably either stupid or nerdy before she climbs back into her chair to actually do her damn job. Meanwhile, Quinn's about to lose her mind trying to count her kids and make sure that they're sprayed down with sunscreen.

She _hates _pool time. The kids are crazy pretty much all the time, but when they're minutes away from getting in the pool, they go absolutely insane. They're way too hyper, and trying to get them calmed and somewhat under control is basically impossible. None of them listen to her, and she basically wants to strangle every single one of them. Anna's got pool duty with her, but she's too busy putting on her own SPF 30 to worry about the kids. It's extremely annoying.

What's more annoying, though, is the fact that Quinn can't stop looking across the pool at Sam and Leslie. They're still laughing, and she would really like to know what's so damn funny. Really, she'd like to know why she even _cares. _Obviously there's always going to be that blurred line there, just based solely on the fact that he's her ex-boyfriend. But it's not as if they're still interested in each other or anything, and they don't hate each other. They're friends. That's it.

So she really shouldn't be so frustrated right now.

Leslie's two minutes late climbing back up to her chair, and Quinn watches as she glances around to make sure the other lifeguards are all at their posts before she blows her whistle. The kids don't need to be told twice, and it's a human stampede toward the pool. She always kind of gets nervous at this point because her girls are really little, and several of them think they're much better swimmers than they actually are. But the lifeguards are there, and it's their job to make sure the kids don't drown or like fall down and crack their heads open on the diving board.

She doesn't feel like swimming today. Sometimes she'll join the kids in the pool, but right now, she really just wants to sit on her towel and read the book she's been attempting (and failing) to get into for the past however many days have passed since she first got to this place. She's still only on the second chapter, and she'd like to get into it enough to actually be at a place where she gives a damn. That's much easier said than done, though, when she has to spend so much time chasing after spoiled brats and making sure they don't kill themselves or go missing in the woods.

She's totally never forgiving her mother for making her come here.

Sam's over by the diving board joking with the kids while they wait in line for their turns. It's probably not a coincidence that Leslie's on deep end duty today and that her chair is the one closest to the board. Quinn can't really concentrate on her book when he's over there looking up at Leslie and smiling in between bouts of play wrestling with some of the boys. It's disgusting.

Seriously. She kind of wants to barf.

…

It's probably not total irony that she spends that same night cleaning up vomit.

After dinner, the whole camp fills the amphitheater for worship. It happens every other night, and usually it's a relatively easy way to end the day. There's enough upbeat music and fun to keep the kids entertained, but it's low-key enough to also tire them out. They go to sleep much better on worship nights than they do on the nights when after-dinner special activities are planned. Plus, this is what camp is all about, so it's good for the kids to hear a Christ-based message and have the opportunity to pray and come forth with their faith and all the good things that church camp is supposed to instill.

Tonight's message is about forgiveness, and one of the pastors is offering up advice on how to forgive people who have wronged you and how to let go of the pain or anger that you might be harboring. It's an important message (and probably one that Quinn needs), but she gets distracted when she glances down her row and sees one of her girls, Ellie, bent over and clutching her stomach. For a second, she considers ignoring it because a lot of the kids will start complaining of various illnesses as bedtime approaches when, really, they're basically just homesick.

But she sees real tears, and even though Ellie might really be faking it, there's also a chance that she's telling the truth. She makes it past the four girls separating them just in time to see Ellie turn a terrible shade of green. She grabs her hand and pulls her out into the aisle and up the stairs so that they can make it out of the amphitheater.

Ellie pukes the second their feet hit real grass.

It's gross. Quinn hates vomit, and she always tries her very hardest to avoid it at all costs. Besides turning into a cow, morning sickness was definitely the worst part of being pregnant, and she hasn't thrown up once since then. She also doesn't enjoy seeing other people throw up, either. It's disgusting, and she has to fight the urge to run the other way when Ellie starts puking.

She lets her just do it right there for a few minutes until she thinks she's calmed down enough to actually move elsewhere. The nurse's station is in the main camp office, which is probably a five minute walk from the amphitheater. She holds Ellie's hand while they walk and tries really hard not to notice the fact that there is vomit in Ellie's hair or that she smells of fresh puke. Instead, she just looks straight ahead and keeps walking until they reach the office.

She sort of expects to be forced into hunting someone down, but the lights are on, and she can hear voices coming from the back. The nurse is back there, along with Sam and one of his kids who Quinn's pretty sure is named Max. She forces herself not to roll her eyes because Sam's kind of the last person she wants to see right now when she has leftover vomit on the toe of her sandals because Ellie's ability to aim just sucks.

Whether she wants to see him or not, though, he's there, and he looks up at them when they walk through the door. "Sick?" he asks, and really, it's a stupid question because _duh. _

"No, we just felt like a stroll." Her inner-bitch edges out, and she doesn't even feel bad about it.

Sam just kind of looks at her and then twists his face a little sympathetically for Ellie. "What's wrong?"

"My tummy..." she mumbles, and her lower lip is stuck out so far that it's almost ridiculous. Quinn knows she needs to give her the benefit of the doubt because she's clearly not feeling well, but _still. _She is not in the mood for this.

But Sam the Super Counselor handles it just fine. He lets Ellie sit in his lap while the nurse takes her temperature and checks her out, and he keeps an eye on Max who is sitting on one of the cots with an ice pack on his ankle. He's so _good _at this stuff.

It's disgusting.

…

One of the counselors in six or seven starts hanging around her quite a bit, and she's not blind, so she notices. She knows how boys act when they like a girl and don't know what to say- she's dealt with that awkward kind of semi-stalking plenty of times in the past, so she knows the signs.

But this is actually a little annoying, though, because he's really not even _attempting _to hide it. Their kids don't have any activities together besides lunch, so she's not convinced it's a coincidence that she keeps seeing him everywhere she goes. At first she tries to ignore it, but eventually she just gets fed up and decides to inform him that he's being creepy.

He manages to cut her off the second she opens her mouth.

"Quinn, right?" 

They're at the flagpole, waiting for the lowering ceremony. She's got six of her girls, including Stacy who is currently wrapped around her waist, and none of his kids are even in sight. She doesn't know how he justifies that.

"Right," she answers smoothly.

"I'm Dustin." He gives her a dumb smile, and she can tell right away that he's some nice guy jerkoff with a good boy streak. Which inevitably means she'll end up falling for him, of course. It's kind of what she does.

Maybe she'd be better at not falling for that act if the first bad boy who ever showed interest in her hadn't, you know, impregnated her.

She doesn't respond to that, mostly because she has nothing to say. She doesn't care what his name is. So she just looks at him.

"I think it's supposed to rain tonight."

Quinn glances up at the sky and then wonders why the hell he thinks she possibly cares about the weather. Still, he's kind of cute. In a bland sort of way. She almost opens her mouth to tell him that talking about the weather is pretty terrible game, but she's interrupted when Stacy suddenly perks up and takes off running. She knows why without even turning her head. She does, though, and Sam's there showing her some picture on his phone, and whatever it is must be funny because Stacy's laughing and trying to grab the phone away.

But then Sam looks up, catches her eye, and kind of smiles. She doesn't actually return his smile, but she looks back at Dustin and aims it there.

She's not sure why.

…

Her cabin has a meltdown at cabin cleanup one morning.

She seriously didn't know that eight year olds could be so mean, but they prove it in spades when they start screaming at each other and saying things that are pretty much just beyond hurtful. She and Kirby are alone with the girls, while Emma and Anna are on breakfast cleanup in the cafeteria. It's really the first time that she's actually _missed _them.

The blowup starts because Emily accuses Maddie of stealing her iPod, and it just goes downhill from there.

They start screaming at each other, Emily starts crying, more of the girls get involved... It's just a mess. Kirby tries to break it up, even raising her voice for once and telling everyone to settle down. No one listens to her, but it's not until someone actually _throws _a pencil (WTF?) that Quinn steps in.

"Everybody, shut up!" she screams, and it works because there's immediate silence. She knows she's probably not supposed to shout, and she's probably _definitely_ not supposed to tell them to shut up, but she can't help it.

They're out of control.

All of the kids are just staring at her, and Kirby looks shocked that she actually screamed. She doesn't really know where to go from there, so she just takes a deep breath and tries to calm down a little.

"Seriously, you guys," and she's pretty sure she's exhibiting some level of self-control here. "You all need to calm down. And no one needs to go around accusing anyone else of stealing anything," she looks pointedly at Emily.

God, she hates these kids.

Emily's only deterred for a second, though. She looks at Quinn wildly. "But somebody took it! I'm gonna get in trouble if I don't get it back!"

"Look through your stuff," Quinn shoots back. "Your whole cubby is a mess. Clean it up, and maybe you could find something."

"Quinn-" It's Stacy who tries to butt in, but Quinn just can't take any of it. She doesn't want anyone to do anything but clean.

She's a little too snappy when she says, "Stacy. Stop it."

"But I-"

"_Stop," _she says again, and she looks at all the girls. "All of you need to be cleaning right now. No more talking."

She forces herself to ignore the way Stacy's eyes are watering when she turns to straighten up her bed.

…

She has pool duty all morning, so the next time she actually sees her girls, it's lunchtime, and most of them are sitting together at their regular table. Anna's sitting with them, but Emma and Kirby are noticeably absent.

Another thing she notices are all three Evans siblings sitting together at one of the back tables.

Stacy's been attached to Sam the whole time, but Seth has kept a safe distance for the most part. Quinn never really thought much about it because Seth isn't nearly as clingy as his sister is. He's also a little older, and it's probably not cool for ten year olds to be seen with their counselor brother or their little sister. He's with them now, though, and they all look a little less than enthused. Stacy's pouting, and Sam appears to be only half-listening to something Seth is saying.

Quinn almost goes over to join them, but she's interrupted when Emma and Kirby approach her from the back of the dining hall.

"Can we talk to you?" It's Emma who asks, and she has on her know-it-all bitch face. She wears it approximately ninety percent of the time, and it makes her even less attractive than she would be normally.

Quinn follows them out the back doors and already knows what's going on. She's not in the mood for this, and she really has no problem telling them that, either.

"You can't yell at the kids." Emma crosses her arms the second they're out the doors, and any sort of fake politeness she was attempting is apparently a thing of the past. "It's unprofessional."

"Are you done?" Quinn asks calmly. "Because I really don't have to listen to anything you say."

"It's not right," Kirby jumps in just because she has some psychotic need to kiss ass and make friends with people she thinks are somehow in higher positions. Quinn kind of wants to slap her and say _newsflash, we're the ones on the top bunks! _But she doesn't because it's not even worth it.

"Okay, first of all," Quinn looks at Emma, "_you _weren't even there, so really, you have no room to talk. And second of all," she looks at Kirby, "you weren't doing anything to help, and you certainly didn't speak up then."

Kirby looks mad that someone dared to call her out, but Quinn really doesn't care.

"Maybe if you spent as much time paying attention to the girls as you do flirting with the guys, you'd be able to deal with them without screaming and telling them to shut up."

Quinn really can't believe Emma just went there, and she honestly doesn't even know what she's talking about. But it really pisses her off that they're even trying to stand there and throw accusations like that at her.

So when she says, "Kiss my ass," she really doesn't think too much about Jesus or the fact that the entire point of this camp is to worship.

…

She's still pissed off when Sam finds her at the nature hut and asks, "Hey, can we talk?"

They haven't talked much at all in the past few days. She doesn't know why, but he's been getting on her nerves while they haven't even been speaking. He didn't actually _do _anything. She's probably just in a bad mood, or maybe it's just her natural bitchiness peeking through. After all, she's basically _miserable _in this place, and he's always been kind of an easy target for her. Maybe it's not fair, but it's the truth.

"Sure," she says dully, and she backs away from the aquarium that's holding two snapping turtles. She's kind of tempted to say yes when one of her girls asks if it's safe to pet them, so she knows she probably just needs to remove herself from the situation.

Sam takes her right outside the door of the hut. Their kids are all inside, but there are some other counselors in there supervising, so they'll be alright for a few minutes. It's hot outside- hotter than it's been since they got here. The sun's blazing down and feels close to a million degrees. It's probably closer to the mid-nineties, but Quinn's always been in the camp that anything over eighty-five is too hot for pretty much anything.

"Bad day?"

She wants to hit him. Really. She doesn't get how he's just so laid back about _everything _and how he can just lean against the building and say, _"Bad day?" _like being here _isn't _the worst possible wa ever to spend the last summer before college.

"Bad summer," she corrects. "Did you need something?"

"You know, you're the _least _peppiest head cheerleader I've ever met?"

"I'm not head cheerleader." She tries really hard not to glare at him, but it's difficult. "And pep is overrated anyway."

Sam just kind of looks at her, something else he does that's always driven her crazy. It's like he can see something behind her eyes that's not really there. He does it for a second, though, and then he hands her something.

It's an iPod.

"Stacy took it." She doesn't ask, and it's kind of dumb that he thinks she needs an explanation. "She says she just borrowed it, but then she was too scared to give it back because I guess there was a fight in your cabin or something?"

Quinn wants to ask if he really thinks she just _borrowed _it, but she doesn't. She's never known Stacy to take things that don't belong to her, and she doesn't feel right accusing her. Still, she shouldn't be borrowing other people's things without permission anyway.

"She shouldn't take things without asking."

"I told her that." Sam slips his hands into the pockets of his shorts, and she tries not to notice how light his hair is getting in all this sun. "She said she's going to apologize to Emily."

Quinn goes back inside before she does something stupid like tell him that she'll put the iPod back in Emily's suitcase and pretend like it was there the whole time. She's probably supposed to be a better role model than that, and there's probably some lesson there that Stacy's supposed to learn.

Quinn's never been the best with moralistic lessons, though.

…

She ends up mostly drunk one night, and she knows it's a bad idea.

She still has to be up at 6:30 the next morning, and she's never been too fond of hangovers. There's also the fact that she's a horrible lightweight, as evidenced by the two wine coolers and resulting baby that she normally tries not to remember. It happened, though, and she has a sudden burst of recollection when she's halfway through her fourth bottle of Miller Lite and realizing that Dustin's actually really cute.

Okay, so she _knew _he was cute, but she's been ignoring that. It's hard, though, when he's playing with her hair and telling her all about college and how his frat has parties five nights a week. She can appreciate that- not so much the partying five nights a week thing, but she has an appreciation for frat boys. She comes from a long line of Greek royalty, and she has every intention of rushing in the fall. She's a Tri Delta legacy, and even though she and her mother don't see eye to eye on a lot of things, they certainly have the same views on sororities.

It occurs to her that this is possibly a preview for the next four years of her life, and she doesn't really hate it. Honestly, she can't wait to be out of Lima and surrounded with new people. She feels like she was probably born for college life. She was born for anything besides a dead end life in Ohio. _Anything._

She goes on a walk with Dustin, and they end up making out behind the archery range.

It's okay. She's bored, and he's cute. It's summer, and she's kind of drunk. So it just feels like the normal thing to do. It's okay- he kisses exactly the same way every other boy she knows kisses. It's never been something she's overly interested in, which is probably weird, but it's the truth. She likes having boyfriends, but she'd be just as happy never speaking to them or touching them.

But those are the things that give her power- touching, kissing, sex.

Puck called her a cock-tease, and she slept with him to prove him wrong. So he had the power then. She'll never let that happen again.

She stops Dustin when he starts fingering the bottom of her shirt. There's no way, and she lets him know that when she pushes his hand away and leans out of the kiss. He gives her a look that she doesn't even bother trying to decipher because it doesn't matter. This doesn't mean anything. It _never _means anything.

So she doesn't care.

…

Sam and Leslie are starting to get nauseating.

Honestly, they aren't doing much. Quinn has no idea really what they're actually doing, but she also doesn't care. Leslie is a bitch. She's stuck up and thinks she's much prettier than she actually is. And she laughs at _everything. _Every single time Sam opens his mouth, she starts laughing, and Quinn knows from experience that Sam isn't that funny. The impressions are pathetic, his jokes are lame, and he's not even capable of being funny in a mean way because he's genuinely _nice._

So all of this laughing is just unnecessary. And also pointless.

He detaches himself from Leslie long enough to sit down beside Stacy for a few minutes at breakfast. She's in a whiny mood, and he tears the crust off of her toast and mixes together a little bit of strawberry jelly and a little bit of grape jelly for her. It's the only thing she eats that morning, and when she's finished with it, she puts her head down on the table and closes her eyes.

Quinn tries to busy herself talking to a few of her girls who are excited about their upcoming morning gymnastics class. She actually likes taking them to that class, and all the girls seem impressed with her own tumbling skills. But she doesn't miss the way Sam seems to be watching her. She doesn't know why she wants to ignore him, but she's got the beginnings of a hangover headache, and she just doesn't feel like looking at him or talking to him or anything.

And it really doesn't matter because Leslie stops at the table a few minutes later and tries to act all sweet with the girls when she probably doesn't even know a single one of their names. That's clearly not her intent, though, and Sam leaves Stacy and the rest of them to follow Leslie back to her own table.

Quinn eats five pieces of bacon because she thinks it'll help cure her headache.

…

Bunks A, B, 1, and 2 are all teamed up for the camp "Sing-a-Thon," which really isn't singing at all. It's lip-syncing in unison to a song picked out by the counselors. Maybe there's some dancing involved, and there are certainly costume choices and prop options to be considered, but it's basically just a ruse to get the kids involved in teamwork and to force them into associating with people outside of their individual bunks.

So really, it's a lot of BS.

Emma and Anna unsurprisingly take over the _entire _thing and don't bother including anyone else in their plans- not Quinn and Kirby and not any of the counselors from the other bunks, either. They _tell _everyone else what song the kids will be doing, and then they set up a rehearsal schedule and don't bother worrying whether it interferes with anything else.

But they tell Quinn she'll be doing the choreography.

"Aren't you a cheerleader or something?"

Quinn blinks at them because A) she hates them and B) she has a feeling they're secretly being bitches with this question.

"I used to be. But I don't do choreography. Sorry."

"You know, you really need to start pulling your weight around here. It's getting old."

It's Anna who says it, and Emma just stands there beside her looking smug and in agreement. Quinn seriously wants to slap them both, but she refrains. She knows what jealousy looks like, and it's staring back at her in spades right now.

"Fine," she says calmly, keeping her voice as even as possible. "I'll do the choreography."

She walks away before she ends up in a fight or making an inappropriate fat joke about how her weight is at least easier to pull than theirs would be. She's not in the mood to be that girl right now. She's not in the mood for anything really.

She just wants to go home.

…

Sam and Leslie are holding hands later that night when she passes them on the way back to her cabin before curfew.

They don't see her, and she doesn't say anything.

It's not like it matters anyway.

...

A/N: Sorry for the delay on this chapter. Life's been crazy, and I just haven't had a lot of spare time. Anyway, thanks to everyone who left feedback for the last chapter; I'm glad you enjoyed it!


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